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Originally Posted by coffeebean
What has your experience been with either United Health Care Medicare Advantage plan or Humana Medicare Advantage plan?
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We have UHC Advantage and use Villages Health. This has worked out very well for us both for everyday health issues and for major health issues too. When we transitioned from regular Medicare to Advantage my wife had to change one of her specialist which was a bit of a worry, but in the end it worked out just fine.
The UHC Advantage plans come in two kinds. The ones that are zero cost only pay for in network providers. You can get exceptions for out of network providers (we did once, it was a phone call and a form, pretty easy) but there is no guarantee it will be approved. But in any case any Advantage plan has to provide all the services that regular Medicare does even if only an out of network provider is needed.
However there are other ones that will also pay for out of network providers but they are not zero cost and have higher copays and higher out-of pocket expense limits.
We've had the zero cost plan for the last 4 years and getting services and specialists haven't been a problem.
You have to check with the current doctor to see if he or she is in-network even if the UHC plan lists them in network, the list of doctors in the plan documents are not always correct. So you will have to ask your current doctors if will theyaccept any of the insurance plans you want to use.
You mention going to Medicare Advantage... if you instead go with regular Medicare you can go to any doctor that will accepts Medicare and will accept you as a patient. That might be the easiest way to stay with your current doctor.